


sleepers wake

by addove



Series: Linked Universe (AU) [12]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Mentioned Character Death, Music
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:40:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22054183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/addove/pseuds/addove
Summary: When he held the instrument up to his mouth, his hands were shaking. Every breath he took shook, too, and the cold air froze his lungs. He was trembling from his toes all the way up to his head. Legend wouldn't say he was scared, he wasn't scared. He wasn't scared. Not in a million years, he would tell himself. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. I'm not scared, he told himself. I'm not scared.Maybe.
Relationships: Hyrule & Legend (Linked Universe), Link/Marin (Legend of Zelda)
Series: Linked Universe (AU) [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1302743
Comments: 6
Kudos: 150





	sleepers wake

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sillus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sillus/gifts).



> My secret santa gift for silona in 🅱️alls. I hope you enjoy :)!

The voice in the back of his head itched. _Go to bed, Legend,_ it said. _It's late, Legend,_ it said, _you should be asleep, Legend. I fucking know that,_ Legend said back. The voice was silent after that.

Legend stared at the wall in front of him, hands stuffed into his pockets. He'd been standing in the same position for the past twelve minutes. He didn't plan on moving any time soon. Legend was intent on staring at the wall and its occupants. His instruments lined the shelves and hung from spots of empty wood in a neat and orderly fashion. It was properly the only part of his house that _was_ organized. He didn't really know why he kept it as such, really. Peace of mind? Anxiety? To keep the voice in the back of his head from killing him every time he merely looked at the wall?

Maybe.

It was silent, then. As was the wind that made his house creek, and as were the crickets that wouldn't stop singing. The owls hooting and the strange sounds coming from the forests nearby were silent, too. Everything was silent, then, when he stood there at that place and at that time, as it always was. In that place the world seemed to stop. Be it because of him, or because of mere coincidence. The world was silent when he looked at this wall, and when he looked at what it contained, and when he thought of _her_.

 _Her_. The girl he met, once upon a dream. _Her_ and the song she sung that she never let him forget, that she made him promise he wouldn't forget. Even if the lyrics haunt him, she never let him forget them. That was most apparent now, he thought, when he stared at a single ocarina on the shelf.

_"You aren't the worst at it," she teased. "But you could still use a little practice, too."_

Legend wondered if it was worth it to give into his urges and sneak out the house. A single glance back at the group behind him made him make up his mind. He swiped the ocarina off the shelf and left the house as quietly as he could.

The door shut behind him with a soft click, the cold night air immediately hitting him. He immediately curled into himself, inwardly cursing for not bringing a coat. Legend set out anyway, walking briskly along the path he had made himself months ago. The forest, it seemed, was just as awake as him at this hour. The path was empty as it always was, but that didn't mean he didn't have to walk slower in fear of being seen by those damned Chu Chu's.

When the path began to make its end, a small clearance opened up around the trees. Legend had made this place a while ago, in hopes of being able to find a place of solace. The path had been the easiest part to make, flagged by markings on passing by trees and a slight dip in the dirt. The clearance, however, had been harder. The trees weren't the easiest to cut down and get rid off without arousing suspicion from the people nearby, but it ended well, with a single log to sit on in the center. A place for himself, truly.

Legend sat down, idly holding the ocarina. It heavy in his hands. It's surface shined a bright blue, a faint and out of tune melody going through the holes from the wind. In his hands it looked smaller than it had a couple years ago. But it still felt like it weighed more than anything he owned. Simply holding it took him back to a place he didn't want to go back too. Just looking at it made him think of _her_.

Everything else around him disappearing into a static noise that he preferred to ignore as he stared at the instrument. There was no wind, no crickets, no sound of moving trees. There weren't any birds, no house creaking from up the hill and around the corner. There was nothing but static, the thoughts racing through his head, and a distant song playing through his mind.

When he held the instrument up to his mouth, his hands were shaking. Every breath he took shook, too, and the cold air froze his lungs. He was trembling from his toes all the way up to his head. Legend wouldn't say he was scared, he _wasn't_ scared. He wasn't scared. Not in a million years, he would tell himself. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. _I'm not scared_ , he told himself.

Maybe.

The first note he played shook. It sounded just as bad as it had when he first played. With another note it shook just as bad, and another went to off key Legend had to stop playing. He held the ocarina tight in his hands and closed his eyes shut tight, willing his body to still and for his breathing to get back on a steady path. When he held it up to his lips again, the note he played sounded normal, just as it should, and he played on.

With every note he played, he lost himself. The music took him to a place he can't reach, to a place he felt safe. With every movement of his fingers across the instruments surface, Legend lost himself. It felt as if the world stopped to listen, stopped to listen only to him. It was as if the wind pause to take a listen, and the trees froze to hear the melody he played. The crickets sang along with him, the animals pausing to pay close attention to him. Time stopped, the world froze, and Legend was left standing under a spotlight.

_In his mind, he imagined a beach._

The ballad dragged on, and with it, any anxiety left in his system melted into nothing. Distantly, he wondered if she could hear their song, and he wondered if she was laughing at how rusty he had gotten.

_He imagined an ocean in front of him, waves crashing onto the shore and licking at his bare feet. Sand stuck to his toes, and in front of him the ocean sparkled a million different hues of red, orange, and yellow._

He lost himself. He truly did. The music moved along with him, taking him somewhere far away. If he listened close enough, he could hear the ocean's waves moving along with him, and the distant voice of someone singing the same melody. He could feel the notes deep in his bones, rattling them to their core. They stopped his breath, keeping him still. The music halted his existence, it trapped him in a memory, and yet…

Legend had once told Marin that he felt free. Playing the music, singing, hearing the melody. It made him feel like he was flying far away from all his problems, as if he could sit on that beach forever. Free, he said. He had said he felt free. Years ago, that is. He hadn't felt that way in a long time, longer than he wished to admit. He left their song behind, leaving the ballad in a dark corner of his mind. He hadn't played it in a while, but it never truly left him. Neither did this feeling, it seemed.

_He imagined a girl sitting next to him, her voice ringing out above his ocarina. She sang beautifully, he remembered. And she sang strong, he thought. Her voice matched the melody he played, but if he were to compare the two, nothing could ever quite match her voice._

When Legend opened his eyes again, he imagined a beach. He imagined birds flying over the ocean and along with the breeze. He imagined _her_ next to him. She sang along with him, the lyrics to the song going in one ear and out the other but never really leaving. She would look at him out of the corner of her eye and smile. The song would end, but her promise is still there, clinging to the air.

When the last verse began, his hands started to shake again. Time unfroze, and the world along with it. The beach faded into a night sky and an empty forest that stared back at him. Marin's ghost left him alone once more, her voice disappearing once the last note of the song played.

In his mind, her voice still echoed back at him.

_Stay with me, by my side,_

_Never leave._

Legend looked at the ocarina in his hands, lowering it to his lap. It still shone its brilliant blue color, but it looked twisted in his eyes. It wasn't the same color as it was when he looked ta it earlier. Not in his minds eye, anyway.

It was an exhausting thing to think about, Marin always being there to haunt him. He wasn't always bitter about it, but somedays he was more bitter than others, and that _day_ just had to be _now_. 

"Learning from seagulls now?"

Legend jumped, clumsily catching his ocarina after it nearly fell from his grasp. He whipped around, glaring in Hyrule's direction. He laughed, face twisting in joy. Legend only deepened his glare as much as he could, but he probably already looked _pissed_.

"Sorry!" Hyrule said, a hiccup interrupting him. He struggled to regain his composure. "Didn't mean to scare you."

"You did."

"I definitely did."

"Fuck you."

Hyrule laughed again. He cleared his throat, but the smile still remained. Legend almost put a finger up, but he simply rolled his eyes instead and turned back around. _Hyrule_. An asshole, as always. Interrupting his peace and quiet, _as always._

Maybe he wanted the company, but he would never admit it.

"I didn't know you knew that song, too." Hyrule said.

 _Too_.

Legend whipped around again, this time having a solid grip on the ocarina. He held it like it was his lifeline. " _What?_ "

"The song you were playing. You know it too?" He motioned to the ocarina calmly despite Legend's reaction. "I've heard it before, from birds."

 _Birds_. Usually, in most other cases, Legend wouldn't be surprised that someone's heard a song he's played. They aren't all his, and the places he's picked them up from aren't exactly secret. But _this_ one was. This was _her_ song. Nobody else knew it, not like he did. And nobody else _definitely_ had heard it before, much less someone from a hundred years into the future.

This was _her_ song. The ballad. Nobody else had heard it before.

"From… birds?" Legend asked, his breath stopping. Birds. Seagulls, Hyrule had said.

Legend was bewildered more than anything else, really.

"Yeah. Where'd you learn it from?" Hyrule asked. He crossed his arms, probably to look like he was onto something more than anything else, but Legend paid him no mind. He only shook his head and looked back down at his ocarina, willing this night to end.

"A girl."

"A girl?" Hyrule asked. When he got no other information, much less an indication Legend was paying attention, he spoke again. "That all?"

 _Oh, how Hyrule liked to pry_.

Legend took kindly to the invitation to talk, anyway. Hyrule wasn't an idiot-- he knew when someone stalked out into the forest in the middle of the night to play a _ballad_ of all things, they probably had something on their mind. Really, Legend understood, especially in this case. He was over Marin, he _really_ was, but there were some things that stick to people like glue no matter how long ago they occurred. He guessed this was one of those things.

There was little room on the tree log for two people, but Legend scooted over and offered a space to Hyrule anyway. He sat down gingerly, stretching his legs in front of him. He placed his hands in his lap and looked up, a single glance in Legend's direction indicating that he was paying attention.

Legend sighed, running a hand through his hair. "A while ago, maybe a year or two ago, even before I came to live here… I washed up on an island and was told there was no way to escape unless I… _woke up._ And I thought I had, but… when I opened my eyes… she was the first thing I saw. Sometimes she still is."

He should have known, then, that it was a dream. She was too beautiful to be real, after all.

Hyrule tilted his head. Legend wasn't sure if he wanted to keep talking. The fear in his gut ate away at him, but he went on anyway.

"She was… _beautiful_." Legend said, with a hint of a smile on his face. "She was perfect. Her eyes were bright-- and she was always _smiling_. She was the sweetest person I knew, but she was also the only one unafraid of kicking my ass. And… her voice."

He stopped, closing his eyes, trying to remember what she sounded like. It's been far too long.

"Never found anyone else who could sing like her."

"Sounds like…" Hyrule thought, brows furrowing as he stared at the ground. "Kinda like a dream."

Legend's laugh was bitter. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

The worst thing about that statement how _right_ Hyrule is. He was right completely-- Marin _was_ a dream. She hadn't existed outside of the Wind Fish's creation. She hadn't existed outside of the island, nor did she exist to anyone except him. But she was real. She had been _real_. She had laughed and she had cried and she had merely _existed_ like a real person. She had had dreams and she'd had memories and she'd have fears, just like him or Hyrule or even the boy that lived down the road. She had existed and yet…. It wasn't enough for her to stay.

There were a few people in the group notoriously known for disliking the way the Goddess plays things out. Legend agrees, even if it were only a little bit.

Hyrule fidgeted next to him. "Can I…" he hesitated, glancing quickly at Legend and then back to the ground again. "Can I ask what happened to her?"

Legend shrugged. "Disappeared, I guess. Wouldn't know how to describe it otherwise."

"'m sorry."

"It's whatever. She got what she wanted in the end anyway." Legend said. He picked at his nails with a bitter resentment. He'd have to fix them in the morning, but in that moment he needed to distract himself. He took it out on his nails.

Hyrule's frown deepened. He turned to look at Legend, but he didn't even get a glance back. He was busy picking at his nails, but Hyrule's silent question was, ironically, _too loud_. So Legend racked his brain for an answer that didn't make him sound like he was insane.

"She wanted to sing for the world. She never got that, but I guess if you've heard it then… she'd be happy about that." At the very least, she would be. Legend didn't feel as bitter anymore.

"Wild's heard it, too. So have Wind n' Warriors."

"Yeah?"

Hyrule scooted closer, bumping Legend's shoulder with his. Legend didn't look up, but from the corner of his eyes he could see that Hyrule was putting the situation together and responding with as much understanding as he could. Legend appreciated it. He wished he knew how to say that out loud.

"She got what she wanted, Legend." Hyrule said, his voice soft.

Legend nodded, a ghost of a smile on his face. The lines creasing at his eyes and how his posture fell told Hyrule it was sad. "Yeah. I guess so."

Whatever the _fuck_ that was died off. They both sat in silence, with Hyrule staring up at the sky and Legend… stuck in his head again, he guessed. After opening up for the first time in what felt like _forever_ , he was exhausted. He didn't know what to say, he was tired, he wanted to to home, and most of all he never wanted to see the light of day again. He wanted to live under a rock, maybe. Tell the Goddess to fuck off. He couldn't let people know he had _emotions_.

Legend doesn't like… _that_ , but if he were to open up to anyone it would be Hyrule. Or a door mat. A cat. Something that wouldn't remember this conversation and know he can, in fact, be emotionally vulnerable. Or something that would only stare back at him and walk away because it doesn't understand what he's saying. Legend isn't picky.

Something in the back of his head itched. It crawled under his skin and whispered into his ear. Legend felt guilty when he glanced back at Hyrule. He didn't want anyone t worry about him, nor did he want anyone to have their sleep for the night be interrupted because he needed to let out a song like a damned court jester.

Legend's hands were sweaty. He picked at his lip, unable to form the words he wanted to. What do you say to someone you open up to? _"I'm sorry"_? _"Thanks for shouldering my burdens for me"_? _"I'm sorry I woke you up at two in the morning but thanks for being the only person I trust enough with this information"_?

There was more than enough to bullshit around, he thought, so Legend decided to go with the easiest, most simplest route.

"Hey, 'rule?" Legend asked. He wrung his hands, furrowing his brows. "Uh, thanks, I guess. For… whatever that was."

"Oh, so you're being sappy now?" Hyrule teased. Legend elbowed him in the side of his chest. In response, looking away. Hyrule laughed, letting out a soft ow before siding up next to Legend and wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "It was no problem. I like being nosy."

"We know, Hyrule." Legend said, rolling his eyes.

On the long walk back to his house, it was quiet, mainly. Every now and then Hyrule would stub his toe on a rock and hiss under his breath, or there would be a scuffle of feet as they both rushed away from the electrified Chu Chu's, but it was mainly quiet. It left Legend alone to his thoughts. Which, in any case, he _hated_ , but it was better than having awkward small talk.

Halfway back to the house, Hyrule hummed, putting a finger to his lips. Legend glanced his way.

"You know, maybe you should consider getting lessons."

" _What_?"

"For your ocarina. You were _very_ off key." Hyrule said, a sly smile spreading across his face. Legend only frowned again, crossing his arms and looking away. He had been a tad off key, and maybe a little rusty, but being called out about it? Now? Really did not sit well with him.

"I'm a _blacksmith_ , not whatever the fuck the Old Man is. I'm _trying_." Legend huffed, moving a bit quicker to side up next to Hyrule.

"Maybe Wind could give you lessons." Hyrule said, breaking off into a laugh.

Legend shoved him. " _Absolutely not-_ " the damned kid would get too cheeky. Legend would never hear the end of it.

Hyrule turned around and, still laughing, put a hand on Legend's shoulder to steady himself. If Legend didn't feel like he was in debt to him, he would have stepped to the side and let Hyrule fall into the dirt. That would give _him_ something to laugh at.

"Wait- what if- the Old man could help-"

" _Fuck off,_ Hyrule." Legend said, deciding to step out of Hyrule's way anyway and watch him stumble. Hyrule chased after him, breaking into laughter every few seconds after he caught his breath, and despite it being directed at _him_ , Legend couldn't help but smile, too.

He wouldn't have said his ocarina skills were _that_ bad.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the new Ballad of the Wind Fish lyrics. They're really pretty and made me cry! Thanks nintendo.


End file.
